Kim Ki-duk. You either dislike him or admire him for his extraordinary – and every so often, repulsive – filmmaking. That said, no matter what subject matter he tackles, he always finds an appreciative audience. Despite his lack of formal education, he has become one of the most prominent film directors of modern cinema; and…
Category: Foreign Films
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: In Conversation with Jung Woo-sung & Kim Sung-soo
During this year’s London Korean Film Festival, we had a chance to meet and interview- along with MyM, Hangul Celluloid- Kim Sung-soo and Jung Woo-sung. Hangul Celluloid: You’re here promoting Asura: The City of Madness, your latest film, why did you decide to set it in a fictional city rather than in a normal Korean…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Inside Men
In the current global political climate, dirty politicians seem to be abound; some even appear to have strong underground connections, so it comes as no surprise that these topics wound themselves into films – in Korean cinema, it appears to be the filmmaker’s favourite topic of the year, along with Japanese occupation era films. Much…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: Asura- The City of Madness
In Indian mythology, Asura is a god or a demon. Kim Sung-soo’s new production by no means reveals his film’s characters as gods; on the contrary, they are a group of nefarious people, including an unscrupulous detective Ha Do-kyung (Jung Woo-sung: A Moment to Remember, Cold Eyes) and covetous mayor Park Sun-bae (Hwang Jung-min: The Wailing, Veteran). Asura: The…
The 11th London Korean Film Festival: The Truth Beneath (Opening Night)
Lee Kyoung-mi’s The Truth Beneath, a superb dark thriller, was the Opening Night film at this year’s London Korean Film Festival. Co-written by Park Chan-wook, The Truth Beneath takes the audience on a terrifying journey through the dirty corners of the world of politics and through the personal pain of the protagonist, Yeon-hong (Son Ye-jin)….
The 1st London East Asia Film Festival: The World of Us
As we grow up and get busy pretending that we are fully-fledged adults, we sometimes forget the trials and losses and gains that helped us grow and shaped us while we were growing up. Childhood is the era in one’s life when friends have as much influence as family – or even more; and it…
The 1st London East Asia Film Festival: Spirits’ Homecoming
The subject of ‘comfort women’ has always been a complex and uncomfortable one for the Japanese government. 40 years after the Second World War ended, Japan finally acknowledged that the country forced many Korean women and teenagers into military brothels. Sadly, for some people and the ‘comfort women’ in particular, this wasn’t seen as sincere apology….
The 21st Busan International Film Festival: Jane
Jane – a film about Sohyun (Lee Min-ji), a runaway – is a 2016 feature debut from Cho Hyun-hoon. The director’s professional voyage into filmmaking started when his short film Metamorphosis got invited to Busan Asian Short Film Festival in 2007. In 2013, another short film of his, The Mother’s Family, was invited to Indie Forum Mise-en-scene…
The 21st Busan International Film Festival: Afterimage (Powidoki)
The good Lord gave the director two eyes – one to look into the camera, the other to be alert to everything that is going on around him.- Andrzej Wajda 1926- 2016 Busan, South Korea. I was sitting in the Busan International Film Festival press office when I heard that one of my favourite Polish directors,…
The 21st Busan International Film Festival: The Salesman
Asghar Farhadi, an Iranian filmmaker, made his first short film at the age of 13, while he attended a youth drama club. He shaped his film-making style gradually while studying Harold Pinter’s plays at the University of Teheran. He then moved on to study stage direction at the Tarbias Modares University, where he wrote for television and also wrote…
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